THE DISTURBANCE FIELDS

Its been quite awhile since an album grabbed me like The Disturbance Fields does and it is a bit of a miracle that it exits at all. Co founder and guitarist extraordinaire Eric Blackwood was horribly injured in a work related accident (he's a movies special-fx guy) that resulted in one of his arms being nearly severed at the shoulder. As far as I know, Blackwood is permanently disabled from the injury.

Luckily, he and co Edison's Children founding member Pete Trewavas (of Marillion fame) recorded hundreds of hours of music some 6 or 7 years back. With the help of ace guitarist Rick Armstrong (his father was Neil of walking on the moon fame) they stitched together songs with a common theme and came up with this spectacular 67 minute concept album. The album is one full length song in suites that centers on the sad adventures of a sea captain who relates the tales of every weather related disaster that good old mother nature threw at him, including a train wreck while on land.

This multi suite song, titled "Washed Away", starts with the spoken word and acoustic strummed "Captain's Ledger" that sets the tone for the misery to follow with mini sections supported by heavy synth drones and atmospheric effects before ominous screaming but ultra melodic synths, bass and heavy drums kick in for "A Random Occurrence" before segueing into the Trewavas sung section titled "Asphyxiation", a song that's about the chilling effects of drowning and suffocation. All is slow paced and is a build up until we get to the section tilted "The Approaching Front " which segues into"Indigenous" that introduce heavy guitar textures and tribal like drumming into the dense eerie sound mix. This is all good but starts to feel like the album might become symphonic/neo-prog by the numbers until the following section, titled "The Surge", suddenly kicks in with an unexpected change of gears. A heavy John Bonham like plodding drum rhythm (courtesy of the late John Wetton's wife Lisa) is quickly accompanied by heavy riff-rock style guitars with an almost Ozzy Osborne(!) like vocal delivery from Trewavas.

Just when I thought that the band had gone completely hard core, the verses end and the song's chorus is taken up instrumentally by majestic symphonic styled guitars and synths that go straight into the ethereal. It was totally unexpected and I couldn't wait to hear it again. The riff heavy guitars and vocals on the verses do once again morph into symphonic guitar and keyboard interplay which is reprised at the song's coda. The magnificent coda features dueling stratospheric guitar histrionics that climb higher and higher as if the players are trying to make the guitar notes reach to Heaven itself. The song briefly morphs back into it's heavy drums, bass and riff rock guitars before stopping abruptly thus ending the song. This is heady stuff followed by a couple of AOR-like songs, the breezy and sublime "A Cold Grey Morning" and the catchy guitar driven "The Tempest". Both have a ring of The Alan Parson's Project running through them and are absolutely infectious. These two songs, along with "The Surge", could have been top 10 radio hits if they had been released as singles back in the 70s and 80s. Both songs surround the quiet and spooky "Into The Dead Calm", another soft finger picked acoustic guitar lament sung by Blackwood with only mesmerizing atmospheric keyboards from Trewavas as accompaniment.

These songs are followed up by more heavy atmospheric guitar, keyboard and vocal sections before the album's penultimate song "Resurgence" arrives to usher in an instrumental reprise of the exquisite coda from "The Surge", this time with an virtual army of symphonic guitars all trying to race each other to Nirvana. The sea captain's brief spoken narration ends these chilling proceedings with helicopter sounds panning left to right before before fading away and ending the album. (A clue to the next album? Trewavas has said that there's more to come.)

For fans of Floyd, Marillion and early as well as later Porcupine Tree, this album is an absolute must have. Not only for it's unique and magical qualities but for the fact that this stellar music, while inspired by those artists and others, is completely its own in both class and style. Don't miss this. 5 stars.